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Puerto Rico's nickname, Island of Enchantment, is a fitting sobriquet. Sandy beaches, palm trees, and tropical breezes make it a favorite gateway for the sun and surf crowd. Rugged mountains and a verdant rain forest attract adventure travelers, and lavish lodging with ocean-side golf courses embrace vacationers who crave luxury. Four hundred years of Spanish heritage has left its mark on the island, giving it an Old World elegance. Its vibrant cultural life reflects not only the island's European history, but also its indigenous origins and African influences.
The island's mountainous interior is just as enticing as the beaches, a land of torpid Spanish hill towns and gourmet coffee plantations. Ranches still raise Paso Fino horses, the finest in the Americas, and state forests preserve lush, jungle-covered peaks, fish-filled lakes and gurgling waterfalls. Puerto Rico boasts an astounding diversity of landscapes, from the misty rainforest of El Yunque and the crumbling outcrops of Karst country, to reef-encrusted desert islands and the withering dry forest of the southwest. And in several places, impenetrable mangrove swamps cradle one of the nature's most mind-boggling spectacles, the glowing waters of bioluminescent bays.
Beaches understandably remain one of the biggest draws. Thanks in part to a small but vigorous coalition of environmental groups, property development has been confined to small clusters, with low-key resorts such as Rincon successfully holding back the tide of condo and hotel building, at least for now.
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If you associate Puerto Rico's capital with the sleepy streets of Old San Juan, then you only know part of the picture. First of all, San Juan is a major metropolis, radiating out from the spot on the Atlantic Ocean that was discovered by Ponce de Leon. Second, this city may be rooted in the past, but it has its eye on the future. Locals go about their business surrounded by the antique and the modern, the commercial and the residential, the man-made and the natural. San Juan's metro area stretches for 12 miles along Puerto Rico's north coast, and defining the city is rather like assembling a puzzle. Neighborhoods are irregular and sometimes overlap - locals disagree, for example, where Condado ends and Ocean Park begins. The areas most visited by tourists run along the coast.
Farthest west is Old San Juan, the showplace of the island's rich history. On the peninsula you will find the city's finest museums and shops, as well as excellent dining and lodging. To the east is Puerta de Tierra, a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the ocean and the bay. Here you will find designer fashions in the boutiques and on the people strolling down the main drag of Avenida Ashford.
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